On Mon, Jun 30, 2008 at 11:41 AM, Sumant Srivathsan <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> > > > This sparked a train of thought in me. I belong (inter alia) to the > TamBram > > elite. I strongly suspect that the kind of high cost you're talking about > > might be absent, at least in the more traditional societies, because of > the > > utter focus on academic performance and 'centum' in the society at > larger, > > which translates into a different set of high costs for the students [1]. > > > It's an inevitable result of the way TamBram (and the rest of Tamil) > society > has grown. Centuries of using the ability to read and write as their sole > currency in the scheme of things, and using it to wield extreme influences > on society have made the Brahmins completely dependent on it. The > Mudaliars, > Chettiars, Nayakars and everyone else had a few other fall-back options. > They had land, they had livestock, they traded, they joined the militaries > of their time. The TamBram just went to school; it's our ancestral > profession. > > Now, onto those other high costs: we're socially inept, except among our > own > kind, where we simply drink filter coffee, talk about which MNC our kids > have joined, how big their house in the Bay Area/New Jersey is, and > who/where/what scandal has recently rocked the family. That may have been true in the past, but I see things changing. And quickly, and for the better. > Our names are our bane (my last name is mispronounced/misspelt both in > south and north > India. What then of my name? > </rant-infused discourse> > > Disclosure: I'm TamBram, IIT-educated, multiple advanced degree-owning, > America-returned, Tam-brahm, non-IIT, non-technical education, very ordinary college guy in non-software, non-anything-tam-bram career. member of elitist invitation-only groups, intellectually > arrogant, extremely articulate in English, deluded by imagination of > grandeur, and mostly quite tolerable company. If you're as elite as I am. > :) > Likewise. C -- http://www.flickr.com/photos/ravages http://www.linkedin.com/in/ravages http://www.selectiveamnesia.org/ +91-9884467463
